Title: Hour of the Wolf
Pairing: Zhao Zhen/Bai Chi
Fandom: SCI Mystery
Rating: G
Notes: Post-canon, nightmares



Something cold and wet pressed against his face and Zhao Zhen swatted at it in his sleep. Or he tried, because the weight on his shoulder - not to mention the solid bulk taking up space between his arm and face - made that difficult. The cold, wet thing pressed into his ear and he groaned, forcing his eyes open to find out what was going on. Lisbon dropped back down to all fours and barked at him before sitting down, tail thumping expectantly.

"What're you doing up here, hm?" Zhao Zhen muttered, sitting up and pushing his hair out of his face as he yawned. Lisbon didn't usually come upstairs at night, preferring her comfy beds and all the assorted toys she could drag into them and hoard, so why was she upstairs now? She barked at him again and then carefully bit down on the duvet, tugging it off the bed.

"Hey!" he protested, grabbing for it and promptly finding himself in a tug of war with his almost-elderly dog. "What are you doing, Lisbon? Drop it."

She didn't.

"Let go," he tried again, eyebrows drawing together as his usually obedient dog ignored him and continued tugging his duvet - and sheets now too - off the bed. "Lisbon!"

The moment he stood to scoop the sheets up Lisbon dropped them and he narrowed his eyes at her. "You--"

She didn't wait for the scolding, just turned and headed for the door. When he didn't follow, choosing instead to remake his bed, she walked back over and headbutted his leg, then turned for the door again. She stopped when she reached it, sat down and very pointedly waited.

"Alright," he sighed, heading for the door. "Fine. You want feeding, is that it? You know you don't get fed until morning now." But she was getting on now, he supposed he could indulge her this once. Stepping out onto the landing, though, he frowned. The atmosphere was all wrong: tense and unhappy and like the silence was waiting for the other shoe to drop. What was going on?

A faint whimper reached his ears and that, that wasn't Lisbon whining for food, that was xiao-Chi. He reached down to rub Lisbon's ears, grateful she'd woken him. "Good girl," he whispered, making his way carefully towards xiao-Chi's room.

"Bai Chi?" he called, knocking carefully on the door. "Everything alright?" There was no answer, because of course there wasn't. Zhao Zhen tried not to be too worried at the lack of response, if xiao-Chi was having a nightmare of course he might not wake up immediately. "Bai Chi?" he tried again. "Xiao-Bai?" Nothing. Lisbon pressed her nose against the back of his knee and he jumped, swallowing down curses as he settled. "What exactly do you want me to do?" he demanded, keeping his voice low just in case. "It's his room, I can't just go in just because he's having a nightmare."

Lisbon didn't look impressed by his reasoning, her tail thumping against the floor as she stared up at him reproachfully.

"You-" Another whimper interrupted him, followed by a lower sound of fear, followed immediately by the sound of glass hitting the floor and Zhao Zhen wasn't hesitating anymore; he pushed the door open, heart in his throat. "Bai Chi?"

Xiao-Chi was tangled in his sheets, one arm free and flailing over the edge of the bed as if he were trying to reach for something. He looked terrified and Zhao Zhen hated seeing the naked fear on his face as he groped around for whatever his dream self was looking for. He dropped to his knees at xiao-Chi's side and caught hold of his hand, linking their fingers together.

"It's okay," he murmured, rubbing his thumb soothingly against the back of xiao-Chi's hand. "It's okay, Bai Chi, I'm here, you're safe. You're at home, nothing can hurt you here." Over his dead body would anything ever hurt xiao-Chi here, he thought grimly, but xiao-Chi had been missing for forty-eight hours and they still didn't know everything that happened in the time before they found him and Zhao Zhen never wanted to repeat that hospital visit. Ever. The SCI team might know what happened, he supposed, but if they did they weren't sharing and even Uncle Bao wouldn't tell him anything, which was annoying. Xiao-Chi wasn't waking up, though, nor did he look any less afraid and Zhao Zhen reached out with his other hand to carefully shake his shoulder. The reaction was instant, as the moment Zhao Zhen's hand closed around his arm xiao-Chi lashed out, pushing him away and pulling his hand free at the same time.

His self-defence skills had definitely improved, Zhao Zhen noted, not that it had helped him much. Still, he wasn't taking any chances and sat back on his heels, thinking rapidly. Talking wasn't helping and touch definitely wasn't working, if anything xiao-Chi seemed to be sinking deeper into the nightmare rather than waking up from it. While there were more drastic options available, a) that would require refilling the empty glass currently lying on the floor and b) a rude awakening was probably not what xiao-Chi needed right now. That left Plan C. Plan C wasn't a great option either, if he was honest, but it was probably the least traumatic of the bunch.

Closing his eyes, Zhao Zhen let all the tension ease out of his body, reaching for a mindset he rarely used. Calmness washed over him and he opened his eyes, taking Bai Chi's hand again. "Bai Chi," he said, pitching his voice slightly lower than usual. "Bai Chi, listen to me." It was a command, albeit a gentle one, a command meant to bypass the conscious mind and directly interact with the subconscious. He wasn't the master of hypnosis his uncle was but that didn't mean he didn't know how it was done or that he couldn't do it himself if pushed. It seemed to be working, however, as Bai Chi was calmer, the fear receding. "Listen to me," he said again. "You're safe here, it's time to wake up, Bai Chi."

Carefully, patiently, he eased Bai Chi out of whatever nightmare he was trapped in, tugging him back to the waking world. He didn't stop until Bai Chi's eyes fluttered open and focused on him, distress mingling with confusion as he did so, but at least he was awake and Zhao Zhen let that headspace go with relief. Before xiao-Chi could say anything, though, Lisbon was jumping on the bed and giving xiao-Chi a thorough wash, leaving him spluttering and swatting at her in doomed attempts at getting her to stop.

"You could have just done that before," he muttered under his breath, pushing himself gingerly to his feet in response to xiao-Chi's yelps for help. "That would have worked fine."

Removing Lisbon proved to be exactly as difficult as expected and in the end they gave up, letting her flop down in the space between xiao-Chi and the wall, accepting the petting with all the graciousness of an empress.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked, sinking down to sit on the floor as xiao-Chi rubbed Lisbon's ears very intently. He shook his head and Zhao Zhen closed his eyes, even though that was what he'd expected. One day xiao-Chi would tell him, he was sure of that. "Alright. How about some tea? Hot chocolate?"

There was a careful intake of breath, followed by an equally careful exhale. "Tea would be nice. Thanks."

"Great. Come on, then." He reached out and grabbed hold of xiao-Chi's wrist, tugging him towards the edge of the bed and was relieved when there was no flinch, even if there was a whine of protest before xiao-Chi stumbled out of bed in his wake. Maybe they'd talk about it in the morning - later in the morning, anyway - maybe they wouldn't, but at least for now the nightmare was over and they could deal with whatever came next later.